Best List: The ONE Light smart keyboard
Who doesn’t want to play piano? Learning to tickle the ivories must be right up there with writing the great American novel: Many of us have a hankering to become more musical.
The fantastic $299 ONE Light smart keyboard is the way to go if you want a piano that will show you how to play without hiring a teacher.
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This utterly brilliant little 61-note keyboard (the same number of keys as on a professional stage synth) feels great to play. While the keys aren’t weighted, they’re stiff enough to feel more like a real piano than most keyboards in this price range. Both my kids play piano, and they really dig the way this one feels.
Even better is the Apple tie-in: Connect a cable from the ONE keyboard to your iPad, launch the keyboard’s companion app from the App Store, and you can dig right in to basic piano lessons with a helpful twist: The keys light up red when you need to press them.
Video lessons will show you how to play all the coolest new pop tunes — I’ll confess right here to having spent a few hours learning the intro to Fiona Apple’s “Shadowboxer.” The keys don’t light up with the video tutorials, but the visuals are good enough that I can see exactly where I’m supposed to place my hands to make the song sound right. Game-style keyboarding lessons will get even the most stubborn music learner engaged in the process.
Perhaps best yet, the ONE Smart Light Keyboard can be used with your iPad and any MIDI-capable app, like GarageBand. That means you can use this keyboard to record in GarageBand or play via an app like IK Multimedia’s Sample Tank, extending the functionality of this great pice of hardware. You can even play onstage with this thing, as there’s a full complement of output ports on the keyboard’s back.
The ONE Smart Light Keyboard comes in black or white/gold to match your own personal decor, too. It’s seamless to use, delivers tons of content to help players at any level get better at piano, and can be used as a controller for any music apps that support MIDI. Why don’t you have one of these right now?
Buy from: Amazon, The ONE Piano
Cult of Mac’s Best List is a roundup of products that make us feel like a shadowboxer. Read more Best List mini reviews.
